Foxconn Electronics Interested in Smartbooks.

Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), a leading contract maker of electronics and computers, said late on Monday that it has aims to build ultra low cost personal computers (ULCPCs) based on ARM microprocessors.

"We have a few smart book projects and I think there is demand for these sub-$200 devices," said Young Liu, special assistant to the chief executive officer at Hon Hai, reports Reuters news-agency.

ARM processors-based smartbooks cannot use desktop versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems and thus utilize various flavours of Linux. Although smartbooks are incompatible with popular software, they still provide basic functionality and their battery life is longer compared to low-cost netbooks.

Despite of the fact that Qualcomm and other vendors of ARM processors proposed chips for smartbooks late last year, there are still virtually no such mobile computers on the market. Considering that Foxconn supplies electronics to renowned brands, smartbooks in its lineup is a good news for ARM and the market.

Foxconn did not reveal any technical details about its ARM-based ULCPCs.

Discussion

"Although smartbooks are incompatible with popular software, they still provide basic functionality and their battery life is longer compared to low-cost netbooks.". That will eventually change as more mods are made for the OS, especially the open source ones. I would count on seeing http://www.smartbook.asia actually track this further.